8 Replies Latest reply: Oct 8, 2014 5:39 AM by BeejCurtis RSS

    Signing Client up for BC usage

    BeejCurtis Community Member
    BeejCurtis Oct 2, 2014 4:46 AM

      Hi everyone,

      This is my first post in here

       

      I am a full CC 2014 member and I am building a website in Muse and hosting it on BC for a client. I am also building my OWN new site to be hosted on BC and have a couple of questions;

       

      Firstly, I see in the Dashboard on Partner Portal, that both site addresses have 'expiry' times? Both sites will have stores so I opted for the last in the list when setting them up (as suggested on the excellent video 'Adding Business Catalyst to your Muse sites') to have full e-commerce etc. Ive had to stop the design of my own site at the mo as I have a paying client and wanted to use BC and Muse to give them a superb website. I AM getting there (and extremely pleased with the results so far ) but I am a little worried about this expiration date. Does it mean I MUST Upgrade the sites before this time? Will they just disappear? What if Im not ready by then? The reason Im concerned is that I have an operation on Tuesday 7th October to un-trap a nerve in my arm. This has caused me years of pain and problems having been a pro illustrator and designer for over 20 yrs. Im a little worried that my recovery time may screw with me getting the sites finished BEFORE the expiry date, so a little info on that would be greatly appreciated.

       

      Also, Im at the stage almost where I want to bring the client in to show them how to use BC to manage their contact forms, store purchases etc etc and Im a bit worried as I can't find any info on how to do this just yet?

       

      My client is an ex-movie star. She was in a horror film in the 80's and now, she has new fans who have tattoos of her character from this movie and we are building the site to showcase their ink of her on their skin. It's pretty cool! Because of the horror element I'd really like to launch the site just before Halloween and funnily enough (ooh, spooky!) the expiration date for her site is 31st October! But, my website (which will be my design business and basically my agency as a self-employed designer etc) is due to expire on the 29th! I know I can't get mine finished before that and Im really concerned about what to do next? I understand that I must hit the 'Upgrade' button but I have no idea what happens after this?

       

      So, I need to upgrade my clients site first. Can she do this and input cc payment info? Can she easily add her Paypal info to get her shop working or do I need to do this? Im sure she doesn't want me to have her cc details! And how do I get her to log-in using her own account that only sees HER site and not mine (or any others I will build in the future)?

       

      Finally, I noticed that on the Partner Portal there is a strap line which states I can have my own agency website for free if I have a paying client - is that correct? If so - that is awesome!! And if so, how do I do that so I can assure my website on BC doesn't disappear. If I could sort that first I could just forget about it (stop panicking!) and then concentrate on finishing her site and getting it published and live (so I can get paid! )

       

      Any info is most appreciated. And after the op, maybe working and typing is gonna be easier? I hope so! I need two hands for Photoshop!

       

      Thanks very much all for any advice.

       

      Beej

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        • 1. Re: Signing Client up for BC usage
          Liam Dilley CommunityMVP
          Liam Dilley Oct 2, 2014 6:33 AM (in response to BeejCurtis)

          Hi there,

           

          Expiration date:

          This is a period of time it will stop login and FTP access from working. But you can login, or go to your partner portal as a BC partner to extend this period and you can do so for a period of time. So do not worry about it.

          It is there to give you a period of time to get a site online, but if you do not, do not worry you can extend it and it wont just be deleted right away.

           

          Muse wise... I would disagree on it but I am a purist and into my web standards and so on. In terms of eCommerce etc the client does not touch Muse, they will use BC for all of their management and you need to ensure the Muse only options are off so they can update pages etc.

          Everything BC setup, layouts, tags, modules etc can be found here - http://docs.businesscatalyst.com/support

          Please note that Muse does not handle a lot of the more detail stuff like layouts, tags and you are not utilising all BC can be with Muse. You will need to at least use the develop area in BC, HTML, CSS etc to do more.

           

          Before you can take payments and set up a payment gateway you will need to hit the upgrade button and do that - Yes.

          • 2. Re: Signing Client up for BC usage
            BeejCurtis Community Member
            BeejCurtis Oct 2, 2014 8:44 AM (in response to Liam Dilley)

            Hi Liam,

            Thanks for your reply

             

            Well thats good to hear about the expiration date anyway!

             

            I used to run a very large website on an Actinic Developer site so I am happy editing the templates, creating templates from files within Muse (along with some design) etc. but I have to agree, the Muse side of things (especially the css etc) has driven me up the wall a little but, I have managed to get my head around it all and the site works really well. I decided from Day 1 to go with Muse as I needed to do this very quickly and also, I wanted to get my learning curve going with Muse. I used to use Dreamweaver (even when it was owned by Macromedia) and I am beginning to think it may have been a better idea to do it this way!

             

            The problem I have found is info on learning BC is very thin on the ground. At first, I even considered using Actinic, but because of my Adobe usage with CC I was sold on the idea of keeping it 'all' together. Yes, it's a bit of a new learning curve but what isn't these days? And maybe I will move to Dreamweaver. I tried to view the site in Dreamweaver - erghh...bit of a mess! The code is crazy! But I liked the idea of being able to use the widgets etc and treat the site from a designers point of view instead. This time!

             

            So, how does one get the site Updated then? Do I have to do it and pay? Do I then have to invoice the client monthly? Also, is it possible then for me to have my own site for free as mentioned above?

             

            Thanks

             

            Beej

            • 3. Re: Signing Client up for BC usage
              BeejCurtis Community Member
              BeejCurtis Oct 2, 2014 9:09 AM (in response to Liam Dilley)

              Also, just so you know, on this particular site I don't want the client editing much at all. If they choose to add items to the store that is totally up to them but, I am sure they will come back to me for most things. The site wont have a great deal of items for sale but I am sure she will want to up-date her own blog etc.

               

              Beej

              • 4. Re: Signing Client up for BC usage
                BeejCurtis Community Member
                BeejCurtis Oct 5, 2014 11:32 AM (in response to Liam Dilley)

                Hi Liam

                 

                Well, Ive had a busy weekend with family but Tuesday is my operation date and I desperately need to find this info out;

                 

                I NEED to 'Upgrade' the site I have built for my customer so we can go live. She's INSISTING (knowing I am having op) that we get the site live. I have hit the upgrade button on her site but I see 2 things: Either I can be billed for the site OR, I can choose Adobe to bill customer. Yes, that would be great! I don't want to be responsible for the on-going cost, but it seems I need my clients credit card info . . that is crazy! My client isn't going to give me her cc info?? What on earth do I do?

                 

                Please point me towards the info where I can see what to do next.

                 

                Thanks

                 

                Beej

                • 5. Re: Signing Client up for BC usage
                  Liam Dilley CommunityMVP
                  Liam Dilley Oct 5, 2014 4:18 PM (in response to BeejCurtis)

                  I clients give us their details for that all the time. If it is a problem and your site runs BC you can create a payment page for them

                  • 6. Re: Signing Client up for BC usage
                    BeejCurtis Community Member
                    BeejCurtis Oct 6, 2014 4:31 AM (in response to Liam Dilley)

                    Hi Liam, thanks for that. Still not sure about asking her though? Is it very easy to set-up a 'payment page'?

                     

                    Also, to get the chap who will be adding products to the store an account on her BC site, is this done on the Partner Portal? Will they only see their site on the dashboard when they log-in?

                     

                    Finally, how do I add her Paypal info so we can get the store working? Can I hand that over to them too or is this something I have to do because again, if thats the case, I guess I need her Paypal info too!

                     

                    Thanks Liam. Sorry for all the questions but Ive been so busy recently it seems that Ive overlooked the obvious in favour of fixing all the other css issues etc!

                     

                    Beej

                    • 7. Re: Signing Client up for BC usage
                      BeejCurtis Community Member
                      BeejCurtis Oct 6, 2014 5:44 AM (in response to Liam Dilley)

                      Hi Liam, What if I add a new user to the BC Dashboard (which I have to do anyway). Will they then be able to log-in and hit the 'Upgrade' button?

                       

                      Im considering adding the BC Gurus Video App to the Dashboard so the client can use this to learn BC.

                       

                      Thanks,

                      Beej

                      • 8. Re: Signing Client up for BC usage
                        BeejCurtis Community Member
                        BeejCurtis Oct 8, 2014 5:39 AM (in response to Liam Dilley)

                        Hi Liam,

                         

                        Well, back from hospital after having my nerves un-trapped and with the use of one hand, lots of pain, a big pack of pain-killers and a bottle of liquid Morphine, i have a question!!

                         

                        (scuse my typing!) ok, i worked this out by inviting client through dashboard as admin and giving her instructions on how to 'Upgrade'. once ive had a week or so rest will get back to it.. by then (unless they have completed successfully by themselves) i wiil push the site live to the url etc..

                         

                        i have also added her colleague over in LA as a new 'user' and needed some advice on which duties i can remove safely from his 'roles' settings? as you know, the site and the main templates are done thru muse. i want him to be able to add new catalogs and products, add blogs, respond to form inputs and orders etc etc.

                         

                        to be safe, which titles should i remove for his role? can i remove create/delete web pages or will this stop him adding products in any way? ive set up a shop-main-template for new catalogs etc and there will be no need (at the mo) to add any new pages as such to the whole of the site. he just needs the power to add items to their store, create email campaigns, create/edit blogs etc which they always wanted control over. i intend on making some custom videos showing them how to do certain things plus, i like the look of the bcguru video app for the dashboard, thats pretty cool.

                         

                        thanks for any help you can give me. im starting to really get my head around it all now and excited about the future utilising bc in my business. i am seriously considering starting from scratch with a bc template for my own website. it HAS  to be 100% because it will be my agency showcasr for other bc sites. i think that maybe i could still do all the 100% slideshow design, portfolio stuff etc without muse widgets and steer well clear of the css muse spews out. i think this first job has been an excellent learning curve as far as seeing how over-complicated things can get with muse and bc. it HAS worked - and pretty well - (will post link once clients are happy) but like you said, the purist side of things and making sure i have full use of bc is so much more important than going for a 'quick-fix' site-build route.

                         

                        cheers bud...

                        sincerely

                        Beej

                        (ouch! off for a break - this really sucks when i am so busy!!)